The 2013 MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee (www.SouthAsianSpellingBee.com) concluded its 12 city tour this past weekend with events in the New York and Boston areas.

With a huge turnout this year as well, the bee attracted some top talent as well as young and new spellers that competed for the coveted prizes and titles.

“It is very heartening to see that each year we get fresh faces and new talent which is a continuing testimony to our community’s strength in this craft,” said Rahul Walia, Founder - South Asian Spelling Bee.

In New York, Aditya Rao from Phillipsburg, NJ was the regional champ and Jairam Hathwar from Painted Post, NY was the first runner up while Sriram Hathwar from Purcellville, VA was second runner up.

In Boston, Surabhi Iyer from Franklin, MA was the regional champ and Shakti Kumaresam of Shrewsbury, MA was first runner up while Mahima Das from Lexington, MA was second runner up.

“MetLife congratulates all of the families who took part in this year's event. We were so pleased to see how many families took part in the LA & Bay Area competition. All the families should be so proud of the skills these children demonstrated,” said Laurel Daring, assistant vice president, Diverse Markets, MetLife.
Along with MetLife, airline major Air-India and education company C2Education have also come on board as sponsors for this event.

The winners received cash prizes of $500, $300 and $200 respectively.

Children up to 14 years of age are eligible to participate and the contest saw spellers of even 6 years of age compete and make it past a few rounds.

The top two winners plus one parent each from every city will be given an all expenses paid trip to NJ on August 16 for the FINALS.

SONY Entertainment Television Asia is the exclusive broadcast partner for the MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee and will be airing the series across 120 countries.

Find us on Facebook at South Asian Spelling Bee and you can follow us on our Twitter handle at Spell South Asian.

To reserve your FREE passes to the Finals, please log on to www.SouthAsianSpellingBee.com and fill in your details.

About Touchdown Media Inc.:
Touchdown Media Inc. is a specialized South Asian advertising and promotions firm based in New Jersey. Now in its 10th successful year, Touchdown has helped clients- both mainstream and otherwise, reach out to the lucrative South Asian market, Touchdown Media represents more than 35 years of collective experience in this niche market. As a full service ad firm, Touchdown has helped many clients achieve their media and marketing goals within the South Asian Diaspora in the US.

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